Ono Akpe, the Director General and the brain behind the Bayelsa Governor’s Football Tournament aka Prosperity Cup, has explained how the idea of the tournament now tagged the ‘largest grassroots football tournament” in Africa was conceived.
He explained that the tournament which took off in 2015 was borne out of the need for governor’s appointees like himself to be involved in physical activities.
Akpe in a recent interview explained that over time, the overwhelming support of the idea especially by Bayelsa youths made him and a few others come up with the idea of the football tournament to harness the enormous talents of Bayelsan youths in sports.
He said, “It was borne out from our resolve as government appointees to be involved in physical activities. At some stage we realised that the passion which we exhibited and was supported by the youths of Bayelsa State was the enormous passion and skills that abound in the state.
“We believed that these talents were going to waste if not properly harnessed, so I and a few others came together and put this tournament together to see how it will help engage our youths in football talent development, so we put our own resources together to kick-start it.
“And after we started the activities, we got a call from the government, Governor of Bayelsa State then, Senator Seriake Dickson, who supported us and we started the first edition in Nembe, since then the competition has been very interesting, very exciting but equally very challenging.”
He commended the Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri who he said upon assuming office encouraged and spurred the organizers of the tournament to expand it to include talent discovery and scouting to discover raw footballing talents in the state.
His words, “I must really commend the Governor who was once a Commissioner for Sports, for his unravelled commitment to the development of sports, especially football and the Prosperity Cup.
“When he came in, he first sent for me and asked how the arrangements for the tournament and I briefed him, and he said he was very interested to ensure that more youths of Bayelsa are developed and propelled to greater heights in their chosen careers.
“He stated that he wanted the youths to channel their energies and talents to earn a meaningful livelihood in sports.
“Then we started to build the tournament around talent discovery and pushing these discovered talents to greater heights, that is why coaching and talents scouting programmes were further expanded and developed to ensure we get the best for our youths.
“You could recall that even from the 2015 edition, you have exciting players like Okardi, who was our most valuable player, his team won the pioneer cup and he went up to play for other teams before going abroad, he is in France now playing professional football.
“We have Nestor who is in Bosnia, we have quite a lot of others abroad, now we have scouts from all over Europe and even Africa including South Africa coming to scout our players and we have seen quite a bit of success in that.”
He noted that although after nine years, the tournament has had its challenges, it has achieved enormous feats including being recognized around the world.
He stated that the talents discovered from the Prosperity Cup now plies their trade around top leagues in the world outside Nigeria.
The sports administrator disclosed that the tournament which started with 110 teams in 2015 now has over 200 teams competing with the introduction of female and para-soccer editions this year, adding that the tournament is now three in one.
He said the Prosperity Cup has turned into a global brand, adding that “We got calls from Europe, from the UK, from Germany, in fact we have a proposal to take our players to Ghana in a tournament organized by a German organisation this year.
“We also have a proposal to select some players and take them to Portugal, so all these things are in the cards and the table.”
He however called for brand sponsorship from the corporate world including multinational oil companies to take over the sponsorship from the Bayelsa State government.
Akpe also thanked the Bayelsa deputy governor, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, sports commissioner, Dr. Daniel Igali, and others who have contributed immensely to the success of the tournament over the years.
